Climate Change

Can God Make a Planet so Perfect He Can't Warm it Up?—David Frum

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Conservative disbelief of climate change doesn't only come from skepticism about the environmental movement. As Michael Stafford writes, many conservatives have a peculiar religious view of the issue. As they see it, climate change can't be real, because only God is capable of destroying the planet:

Senator James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, has recently claimed that it is arrogant and "outrageous" to think that humans could alter the planet's climate - a climate that has been ordained by God. Citing to Genesis 8:22, he has argued that AGW cannot be occurring because "as long as the earth remains there will be seed time and harvest." For Inhofe, God is firmly in control.

Rick Santorum, a leading Republican presidential contender and an outspoken opponent of AGW, has expressed similar sentiments, arguing that humans

"were put on this Earth as creatures of God to have dominion over the Earth, to use it wisely and steward it wisely, but for our benefit not for the Earth's benefit ..."

In essence, the theological argument against AGW maintains, alternatively, that it is impossible because God would never permit it, because God controls climate, or because only God has the capacity to destroy the world. I suppose these individuals have never heard of nuclear weapons.

Stafford proposes an alternate viewpoint: "the Biblical mandate is to care for creation, not to commodify and exploit it."